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Sunday, February 23, 2014

WHY? Why would you want to eat nothing except vegetables. No eggs, No meat, No dairy, No fish. It appears to me that Vegans also eat a lot of processed food in order to imitate Real Food.This was taken from another blog so I've modified it.An interesting egg free "Egg Salad."Begin with a block of tofu cut into small pieces. More about my take on tofu in a minute.

Then you add in some Braggs Nutritional Yeast seasoning. I think this is used by a lot of people and I'm not sure what the New Zealand equivalent is.or even if there is one. This is popular with all people concerned about their health.

You add in some Black Kala Numik salt aka Indian salt, which supposedly tastes like egg! The eggy flavour possibly comes from sulphur, an impurity in natural sourced black salt which is added to commercially manufactured version.

Now you can build a nice sandwich in a bread roll, wheat of course. No butter allowed!

I did not set out to mock a vegan diet but I do wonder why it seems so necessary to imitate the taste of foods derived from animals. This seems like an oxymoron kind of thing to me.I have always been accustomed to Real Food so this recipe horrifies me.

The fake egg sandwich would make me sick but that's okay because I wasn't the one eating it.
The person whose lunch I have described thought she was making the healthiest food in the world.I know it's mean of me but I am waiting to see if this way of eating lasts long term or has any long term impact on their health. Currently the couple both enjoy very good health and are quite active, hiking and canoeing etc. My guess is that they are about 80% or more , vegan. They do seem to eat fish andthe occasional burger.

Tofu is made from soya beans and is common in some cultures. It's recognised as a healthy protein . But is it? I think one would have to be careful. There is a lot of information about the good and bad of soya products. Here is what Dr.. Mercola says. Soya beans or the plants are mostly GM modified and Soya beans are known to have a hormonal impact for many people. Too much oestrogen or something like thatI grew up in a farming family. One set of Grandparents had a dairy farm and supplied fresh, raw milk to the town with daily door to door delivery. My father's family had a mixture of farms but mostly fattened cattle and lambs for local butchering. We always had our own vegetable garden and backyard hens. There were even some fruit trees. How I would love to return to the lifestyle. It is so very sad to me that very few of the descendants of those wonderful people are now living off the land.

I've had my follow-up visit with the ophthalmologist and case closed. My eye has healedd up nicely but I was warned it will never be perfect and I need to take care of my eyes. I guess I should use drops daily just as a precaution but I dislike them sooo much.

I've been preparing a quilted runner for one of our daughters-in-law. I'm waiting now until we go to town so I can buy batting and backing. This will be entirely hand stitched. Quite feasible on a small project. I find it so relaxing to sit and stitch but not the best at night. We really must get a decent floor lamp I can set beside my chair.

Why do I hand stitch? I know it's slow and I could do so much more if I used the sewing machine. I have never really enjoyed sewing although I once made all our own clothes and the children's too. A sewing machine is WORK. Patchwork and quilting is a hobby. I'll psot photos soon... Maybe tomorrow.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

As expected yesterday was a very long day and has left me somewhat exhausted, although not as bad as I thought I might be.

We left home about 7.45 am but I woke up about 4 am and could not go back to sleep. So annoying when I had set my alarm for 6 am.

We had a good drive to Hamilton. There was more morning sun than forecast, a couple brief hold-ups for road works and rain before for the last 30 or so minutes into Hamilton.

There was a lot of hanging around once we checked in at the Day Surgery Office. I felt as though I was on some kind of production line as I got processed from one waiting room to another. The surgery went without a hitch and recovery time less than one hour. The comparatively simple surgery with a local anaesthetic sent my blood pressure soaring. Before surgery it was 137/95. The anaethetist thought my BP very acceptable considering I take no medication. After surgery 188/86. I was afraid for a minute they would keep me longer but they believed me when I said it was an aberration and I'd keep checking it at home. Have not done so yet.

Our drive home was uneventful. We left the hospital just after 5 pm in peak traffic and stopped in Morrinsville for petrol and at New World where we bought crackers, camembert, diet ginger beer. (Bunerburg, of course), a packet of Whitakers Peppermint, Dark Chocolate mini bars and a small bag of roasted mixed nuts. We stopped under some lovely big oak trees and sat in the car to feast. The wind was too cold to sit out at the picnic table.

We walked in the door at home about 9.15 making it just 13.5 hours from home and back. There was not a lot of pain with this but even so I kept up the paracetemol to stay comfortable. I fell asleep somewhere in the hills, lolling around, hanging in my seat belt for half an hour.

I am glad to be home in my own recliner with no wheels moving under me.

I slept reasonably well last night and woke this morning with No Pain. My eyelid is too swollen to do anything so I cannot tell how successful the implant is. I am rather one-eyed today and have to watch out as my depth perception is way off. I must keep reminding myself to not let go of things until I hear them touch the table or whatever I am placing the object on and I am certain it is stable. In particular this applies to cups of hot coffee. I have to watch out for steps too but that's nothing new.

I'm simply eating what I feel like, so this morning I had oat porridge with sugar and coconut milk. Yummy even after burning the pot. John is a brick. He always cleans up my burnt pots, with plenty of complaining, I might add. For some reason he has taken over responsibility for most of the housework. I've decided it suits me so all I have to do is turn off from hearing the complaints that utter forth. I have some Nestlé cappuccino sachets which are helping to keep my coffee addiction alive an well.

I was given a prescription for ointment when discharged from Post Op yesterday. It was too late to fill it anywhere except the emergency pharmacy and we had no desire to drive into the business part of Hamilton in rush hour. John is away now getting some groceries and the prescription. If anything makes me mad-angry it is the lack of consideration toward the individual at big hospitals. I know the script was written out hours earlier and sitting in my file. It would have been so much easier if someone had given it to us earlier. John would have gone to a nearby pharmacy before they all closed for the day. He could have done with staying home today. Yesterday was demanding on him too. Driving through the hills on our narrowish, winding, twisty roads takes a lot of energy. There is no chance to relax, especially at this time of year when there are many tourists not to mention crazy NZ drivers who think it's safe to pass approaching blind bends.

Just another little thing we have to cope with as long as we live on the Coromandel Peninsula. I would have opted for not driving home but we have been away such a lot it's nice to come home at the end of a day.

Later.... I was going to look for suitable photos but I'm done for the day. The swelling has gone down enough for me to work my eyelid. Yay! I have a nice black eye developing. I won't be going anywhere without dark glasses to hide behind for a while.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Would you believe our Christmas tree still stands in our living area in all it's glory? I fully intended to pack it all away before we went to Christchurch but could not get motivated. If I don't get my act together soon I may as well leave it for Easter and then it can stay there until next Christmas.

I'm content that I've got my head around my current situation and The Plan.

It feels a bit weird to be content after all the months of frustration. All I've done is lift the bar and make it easier for myself.

Do you lift the bar to make life easier or lower it? I was thinking of the Limbo bar when I wrote the original sentence but If you are think high jumping then of course it would be need to be lowered. Since I neither Limbo Dance nor High Jump let's say the bar needs to be no lower than 1.5 metres/4 feet.... I think I can get under that without touching if I crawl, or a couple of inches off the ground. I don't see me jumping successfully an day soon.

This last week my main focus has been the evening snacking. I had got into quite a habit of eating dessert, icecream, unlimited nuts and whatever was on offer between dinner and going to bed. It was easy to break the icecream habit but the nut habit is much harder. I'm exercising some discipline but it's not easy to reduce my evening snacking. A habit crept up on me that must change.

I made some jelly/jello with flavoured tea bags. I do not use any sweetener in my tea but the jelly needed something. I added a little honey. This is all very experimental. My goal is to make a tasty jelly to eat instead of WW which has Aspartame. One of my favourite desserts/snacks is jelly with whipped cream. I will be very happy if I can fit it into my low carb template.

I am hoping to be able to live pain free very soon. The left side of my face has been affected by Bells Palsy for two years and have really lost hope of recovery of the facial nerve which controls animation. The muscles have wasted, my face is unattractively twisted. I drink with a straw because I struggle not to dribble, My speech is sloppy with some letters very difficult to pronounce unless I seriously concentrate, and the eyelid does not close or blink spontaneously. The affected eye is always sore, sometimes more than others. I do use drops but the best ones only partially relieve the problem. Not to mention that I hate eye drops and I cannot put them in by myself. I often cover my eye, tucking a tissue under my glasses. I've worked out something that keeps the lid closed, especially at home. I'm quite adept at being one-eyed.

WHAT MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY SEE
I ONLY STAY LONG ENOUGH IN FRONT OF THE MIRROR TO BRUSH MY HAIR AND PUT ON LIPSTICK
THE MUSCLES ON MY LEFT SIDE NO LONGER FUNCTION'
THE ACTIVE RIGHT SIDE HAS PULLED MY FACE SIDEWAYS
I'VE LOST MY NATURAL SMILE
THIS IS A HAPPY FACE

I've been on the waiting list to have a special Gold Weight implanted in the affected eyelid. Each time the possibility of an appointment for this 'Day Surgery' with local anaesthetic, came up it was cancelled for one reason or another until I lost my place on the waiting list through no fault of mine. Finally I phoned yesterday to see if I could stir things up a little. This morning I received a call to say they have a slot tomorrow afternoon providing all the other ducks line up. They do so we are organising ourselves now.

We need to leave home before 8 am and I have no idea when we will get home. It's not a particularly difficult procedure, I'm told. But nor is it an everyday one. The specialist said he would only do one or two a year so now I'm praying it all goes well. I cannot imagine how horrible it would be if my eyelid gets totally messed up. Thanks to Jackie we have a voucher for a restaurant in Hamilton, near the hospital, which we will use for an early lunch before keeping my 12.30 pm appointment. I hope we will be finished there before 5 pm. It's a long way home if you feel miserable.

Whatever progress I've made toward The Plan could be undone tomorrow but that's okay. I now have an easy plan to find my way back to. The next step will be for the eye specialist to refer me to the plastic surgery clinic once he is satisfied his work has healed.

Monday, February 10, 2014

A CLEARED SECTION IN THE OLD CHRISTCHURCH CBD
THIS IS NEAR CATHEDRAL SQUARE
BUT WE HAVE LOST SO MANY LAND MARKS EVEN THE LOCALS GET LOST

I promised myself I would start my 'New Plan' on February 10th. That's today.

Reading back on what I intended to do is a little scary so I have modified my beginning. I did say we would go dairy free from today but I'm simply not ready and I do not think John is either. I'll review this decision in 4 weeks time.

In the meantime I am eating normal, for me, food. It's higher in fat and lower in carbs but not thinking in terms of being ketogenic although I know that might be better for my brain and thus my mental health.

I feel slightly less stressed but will be starting on St John's Wort as soon as I do some shopping. I also need to get back into the habit of taking my vitamin B Complex Stress Formula.

We had a pleasant almost 3 weeks in Christchurch staying with our youngest son and his wife. This is the 6th day since we came home and it's promising to be a hot one. I hope it doesn't get too muggy as well. Yesterday I became most unwell while preparing dinner. Not sure whether it was the warmth and humidity or dehydration. It felt like a major hot flush ..... at 75 years old.... I ask you, Do they ever end? Today I don't feel too great but since the morning is cool it's better than last night. I'm thinking about going to visit our daughter at Simpsons Beach and having a swim this afternoon.

ANYONE FOR COFFEE?
AN INFORMAL SETTING MADE WITH RECYCLED PLASTIC BINS, WOOD PALLETS AND OLD SIGNS.
VERY ATTRACTIVE AND WELL USE AT LUNCH TIMES BY PEOPLE WHO WORK NEARBY

My weight..... oh this is so boring..... I weigh almost exactly what I weighed 7th January 2013. 85.8 kg/189 pounds. The good news is that I have lost nearly 2 kg since our long travel day last Tuesday. We left our son's house about 8 am and arrived home about 5 pm. It's the drive home from Auckland Airport that kills it, especially when all through the hills we were stuck behind tourists who are scared of our roads.

Now I need to read my original suggested plan again and think about what I am doing to implement it. I am very aware of the weight I have gained, about 5.5 kg/12 pound which is almost a stone in my old pre-metric language. I am also aware that I feel flabby since I stopped using the cross-trainer regularly.

I really appreciated Tom Naughton's, (Fat Head), explanation of why New Year's Resolutions do not last. Character or Chemistry is a well written, humerous and personal observation. Now move on to the rest of the series and read

Part 2. Do you recognise the people who you thought were secretly cheating and lying about eating like a bird and not losing weight?

Part 3 "Thermodynamic paradoxes" is a technical term which refers, in this case, to the fact that some people do not metabolize calories according to the law of thermodynamics. ie Calories in and calories out balancing out. Check it out on Wikipedia.Part 4 Some 'before and after' photos of people successful on LCHF diets and more about the chemistry that makes them work.

There is continuing research and release of fresh discovery every day it seems. One thing I keep in mind is that I am a woman, I am older than all of the subjects of research I have seen mentioned and I have seen suggestions that women might need more carbohydrates than men. It is just possible that a long term ketogenic diet may not be right for women. I have even read that potatoes are not as bad for a low carb diet as I had believed.

LAUGHTER WORKS

It's all a matter of finding what works and is sustainable for your own life and body. I cannot believe that I am only just beginning to scratch the surface of what this means for me. I hope I never lose the ability to learn and make necessary changes but sometimes I do feel too old to bother any more.

"THE PAIN OF DISCPLINE OR THE PAIN OF REGRET AND DISAPPOINTMENT" - IT'S MY CHOICE

DISCIPLINE EQUALS FREEDOM

About Me

I am in my 78th year and live in New Zealand. In 2013 my husband, John, and I spent our 50th Wedding Anniversary in Hawaii. We have a major trip to North America planned for 2018
I have a long history of losing and gaining weight. I first began keeping an on-line journal around 2000 as a way to record my weight loss and quest for better health.
We moved to Christchurch in December 2015 to be near our only Grandchild. Ava -Jane is a wonderful gift to our family.
Life is full of the unexpected.
I am all about having some fun times this year.